Heading Out: A History of American Camping

"Has America seen its heyday of camping peak? Is sleeping under the stars now on a slow downward trajectory, not unlike the dying flames of a campfire? That's one of the questions Terence Young examines in this heavily footnoted text tracing the history of camping in the United States.... Trends in modern camping are just one intriguing aspect of this text.... Heading Out also touches on the end of segregated campgrounds and how the loop campgrounds you find in the National Park System came about."

--National Parks Traveler

"While searching for the meaning of camping, Young concludes it is a pilgrimage activity--not religious, but an experience where people leave home, travel somewhere as an act of devotion, and return home changed. This focus led Young to one of the book's key insights: that camping is as much about leaving somewhere as it is about going to another place. This book's vignettes are well researched and provide interesting details that drive the narrative."

--Western Historical Quarterly

"By interweaving historical analysis with biographical sketches of individual authors or campers from each era, Young maintains a light, conversational tone that makes the book an easy and pleasant read."

--California History

"Terence Young's new book Heading Out: A History of American Camping, a major contribution to ongoing studies of camping, takes us on a satisfying multi-stop excursion through the question of why--for more than two centuries--North Americans have voluntarily left home to carry packs, pitch tents, and park travel trailers in the name of recreation. Along the way, Young provides deep insights into the diverse modes, meaning, and implications of American camping, with the idea that this practice moves us out of ordinary life--not necessarily into the natural, but away from the urban."

--Social & Cultural Geography

"The great strength of this book is that it distinguishes 'noneconomic social relations, science, and technology, values, attitudes and beliefs' in camping pilgrimages from the scenic, sublime, and transcendental nature that earlier generations sought.... Young writes with an accessible yet confident prose that will engage readers of differing interests. Embedded in each chapter are fascinating revelations... [that] Young has carefully researched and wonderfully written."

--Pacific Historical Review

"Carefully written and highly readable."

--Journal of Sport History

"Heading Out will engage and delight. Camping enthusiasts, backpackers, nature lovers, and scholars will enjoy and learn from this work. It is a satisfying read."

--Environmental History

"The book is richly illustrated with campground plans and photographs.... Young has made an important contribution to camping history, and Heading Out will encourage land use professionals, environmental historians, and camping enthusiasts to hit the road, trail, and archives for more adventure."

--American Historical Review

"Young offers a fascinating evolution of camping from the 1860s to the present.... Heading Out will engage and delight. Camping enthusiasts, backpackers, nature lovers, and scholars will enjoy and learn from this work. It is a satisfying read."

--Environmental History

"[Heading out] is deeply researched in archives around the nation and in a truly impressive body of published primary sources including newspapers, magazines, and camping guides. By investigating topics such as how almost all campgrounds came to have nearly the same basic layout or why backpacking trails came to be so popular, Young encourages readers to think about one of their ordinary activities in historical terms and to conceive themselves as actors in one moment of a long-term national drama. In that drama, Americans began to think of living outdoors as fun instead of a hardship, and camping came to take on religious, nationalist, and social well-being implications in U.S. society. Importantly, Young relates all this in a thoroughly engaging narrative. The book is superbly organized and cleverly written in crystal clear prose, making it a fast and easy read."

--AAG Review of Books

"Heading Out provides a fascinating and engagingly written look at the history of sleeping out-of-doors in the United States.... From scholars to thru-hikers, everyone who has slept outdoors or is interested in Americans' relationship to the natural world will find Young's work an engrossing read and will rethink what it means to sleep outside. For the field of public history, Young's work gives intellectual weight to recreational pursuits and urges scholars to think critically about the long, often political, history of the outdoor activities in which Americans have long participated. For a public audience, Heading Out helps readers interrogate why, how, and with what gear they choose to spend the night out of doors."

--The Public Historian

"Heading Out provides an admirable history of why Americans camped and how."

--Material Culture

"A lively, expansive, deeply researched, and rewarding exploration of how and why Americans have gone camping since the Civil War.... Students, scholars, and outdoor enthusiasts will all learn from it and enjoy the ride along the way."

--Historical Geography

"There is something for everybody in this meticulously researched and fascinating story of American camping."

--Geographical Review

"Anyone who has studied the American conservation movement has doubtless come across references to camping.... What are its origins? What accounts for its popularity? How has the practice of camping evolved over time? Thanks to Terence Young, we now have a volume devoted specifically to this uniquely American pastime - one that is as entertaining as it is enlightening.... There is something for everybody in this meticulously researched and fascinating story of American camping."

--Geographical Review